Thursday, October 12, 2006

Hunter-gatherers at heart

We have been doing a spot of retail design at work recently. Yesterday this gave my boss an ideal opportunity to expand on his theory that we are all hunter-gatherers at heart. This principle can be applied to many areas of life, and in particular with the design of shops.

so, here is the premise:

Women are the gatherers. Their instinct is to browse amongst the bushes searching out ripe berries and fruits. Clothes shops are designed so that the clothes are hung on bush-like stands, and you have to rifle through them until you find the one you want. Women will quite happily browse the shops all day looking for the best 'fruit'.

Men are hunters. Their instinct is to decide apon a prey, go out and hunt it. Therefore they hate browsing through shops. They decide on what they want before hand, go out, make a quick purchase and take the booty back home.

My boss believes this idea can be applied to all sort of male/female character differences.

Women can (allegedly) multi task better than men. Is this because they can pick a few berries, attend to the children, check the fire is still going, pick a few more berries etc? Men don't need to multi task. They must be totally focused on the wooly mammoth they are stalking.

Woman are very finely attuned to colour and shades of colour. This is because they must recognise when a fruit is ripe or when to leave it on the bush another day. Men are better at shapes, outlines etc because they must be able to spot a deer standing still between some trees.

Men like gadgets. This is because they must have a range of tools for hunting. They must have a spear, a bow and arrow, a pit covered with sticks, a fishing net, an ipod, a PC, a plasma TV, a HiFi, a mobile phone, a PDA etc etc.

Women don't need all these tools. They are just gathering berries. That's why women love handbags.

So you see, next time I need a new handbag, it's not an extravagance, it a primeval urge that I can't control. It would be dangerous to deny me of that.

3 Comments:

oh dear....I'm really sorry, but as a girl I hate clothes and food shopping - but give me a tool kit, and / or a new gadet (especially a 42" HD plasma TV) and I am happy. Could you ask your boss what he thinks of that?